Bonds
by Kira Dalton
Summary: Namikaze Naruto, the beloved son of the Yondaime. Uchiha Sasuke, second son of the Chief of Police. Haruno Sakura, girl with two personalities. Hatake Kakashi, the man in charge of making them a team. AU of Naruto. Hints of Time Travel.
1. Chapter 1

1\. Team Seven

 _Sakura_

When Sakura arrived at the classroom the day of team assignments she was tentatively hopeful for her team assignment. She knew she wouldn't be on the same team as Ino, the Ino-Shika-Cho heirs were an obvious pair. Sakura liked Ino though. She'd never picked on her like the other girls and hadn't minded her eccentricities. Hinata wouldn't be too bad. She was quiet, but Sakura knew the girl was smart.

( _And a Hyuuga, the Byakugan is powerful thing to have on your side even with a timid wielder_ , Inner pointed out shrewdly.

Sakura rolled her eyes at the suggestion. Inner had a bad habit of viewing others purely as tools for Sakura's future rather than as other people.)

But like Ino, Sakura doubted the clan heiress would be placed with her. Despite her timid nature Hinata was the heiress to an important clan and would likely be placed with other clan children.

( _She'd do well on a tracking based team._

Sakura agreed with the assessment. Tracking didn't necessarily lead to engagement, but would allow Hinata to use her skills.)

Sakura's parents may have been shinobi, but as much as Sakura love them Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno were not the sort of legends that would make her stand out. Not that they were incompetent, Sakura thought protectively. Her parents were loyal and good shinobi of Konoha. Her father though had barely made Chunin and never looked beyond it. Her mother had mainly worked the missions desk until her early retirement to raise Sakura. The Harunos were good people but their name didn't have the same clout as a Hyuuga or an Uchiha or even a Nara.

Sakura supposed she'd be placed with other no-name genin.

That was okay though. Sakura wasn't a kunoichi like Ino. She'd accepted that.

( _We are_ not _average_.)

Even if her Inner hadn't. Average would suit her fine.

. . .

 _Sasuke_

Sasuke doubted Naruto even noticed the Haruno girl when he dropped down beside her. The girl was always a quiet and seemed to fade into the background even more than Hyuuga Hinata. Which Sasuke supposed was an accomplishment considering her hair color. She was one of their more bearable classmates. Definitely one of the more bearable kunoichi.

"Are you listening to me _teme_?" the aforementioned blonde growled next to him apparently having finally noticed his friend's inattention.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but continued to stare at the pink haired girl an odd feeling of deja vu settling in his stomach. The girl seemed to realize she was being watched or at least hear Naruto's loud voice. Light green eyes met his and Sasuke saw a flash of surprise in them before the girl ducked hiding behind her long bangs. Sasuke felt cheated of something. Understanding?

"No." Sasuke answered completely uncaring and turned to Naruto feeling oddly reluctant to turn from the girl to find his friend's face close and spluttering in offense. Sasuke smirked at the obvious fury. Naruto was so easy to rile up.

Sure enough an argument erupted as it always did between the two friends and Sasuke was quickly absorbed in making the blonde haired boy as angry as possible. Not exactly the most dignified pastime for an Uchiha, but everyone needed hobbies and tormenting Naruto was a fun one.

If Sasuke had been a little less absorbed in tormenting his friend and a little more aware of his surroundings he would have noticed the movement in front of him.

If he'd been a little faster at reacting he wouldn't have sat there confused by why his friend's eyes suddenly widened as he was pitched forward.

As it was Sasuke was neither and found himself kissing his best friend in front of their entire graduating class.

 _He doesn't taste like ramen_. Sasuke thought startled feeling softness pressed firmly against his mouth. Then his mind caught up with the situation and he felt a rush of horror as he jerked back from his friend.

Naruto instantly began gagging, muttering some nonsense about his mouth being poisoned and Sasuke just stared shocked and felt a cold chill go through him. Turning the Uchiha found a plethora evil glares from the girls in the class. Sasuke paled.

His parents would be horrified if was murdered for taking his best friend's first kiss against his will. Itachi would probably avenge him and comfort Naruto for his part in Sasuke's untimely death. Shisui would just laugh, the bastard.

Speaking of bastards, Sasuke turned to glare down the boy who'd hit Naruto. The boy looked sick. Sasuke smirked viciously. Sometimes being part of a feared clan came in handy. Like having an ANBU big brother willing to help him plot revenge and a prankster cousin and friend to carry out the plots.

. . .

 _Naruto_

Naruto was firmly not looking at his best friend. Sasuke thankfully didn't notice the blush he was determined to hide too busy glaring into the boy who'd pushed Naruto. Naruto was not thinking of the Incident. He was listening to Iruka-sensei's boring speech about being a shinobi, but was sure Sasuke was plotting revenge. Sasuke had this thing with revenge.

If Naruto wasn't so busy trying to repress the past ten minutes of his life he'd be tempted to look at his friend's face to judge just how screwed their classmate was.

Considering the terror he'd seen on the boy's face though Naruto was betting Sasuke was going to unleash Shisui _and_ Itachi.

Thankfully Iruka-sensei started reading off the team's which was a bit more interesting and gave Naruto something to focus one. The first few were classmates Naruto didn't know very well. Naruto knew a lot of thinking went into the team assignments to balance them out, but he already had a good idea of which of his classmates would pass.

Or at least Itachi had when he attempted to explain the politics that also went into the selection of genin teams to Naruto. All he'd really cared about was finding out that Itachi was certain that Sasuke and he would be on the same team. Which had made Naruto more than a little happy.

He didn't wanted to be separated from his best and first friend.

"Now, next is Team Seven. Namikaze Naruto!"

Naruto instantly perked up.

"Haruno Sakura!"

And froze. What? The Ghost Girl? The one who never talked to anybody? Naruto hadn't even seen her when he came in. He wasn't even sure she graduated so how could she be one his team? There was a small squeak to his looked and nearly screamed.

It was the Ghost Girl. She was looking at Iruka-sensei with her rarely seen green eyes visibly shocked and her mouth barely open. Naruto knew she wasn't really a ghost, though Sasuke had once convinced him she was when they were little, but the name had stuck. Especially since she always wore her bangs long and in her face, never spoke up, and seemed to pop out of nowhere around him.

"And Uchiha Sasuke!"

Naruto sighed in relief. At least he had Sasuke to balance out the pink haired girl's weirdness. There was another squeak from the girl beside him. Naruto looked at her warily. It was more noise than he'd ever heard come from the silent girl. She was looking at Iruka-sensei like he'd suddenly informed them that the sky was green or that Ichiraku's was closing down.

Naruto shivered horrified at the thought.

"What?" the girl said almost to quiet to hear. "What? How? _No_!"

Everyone turned at the last word spoken at a volume that was completely foreign to the girl. Naruto stared with them. The girl was actually standing now and looking at Iruka mildly horrified.

"Why am I with them Iruka-sensei?" the girl demanded, pointing a trembling hand towards Naruto and Sasuke's general direction.

Naruto suddenly wondered if he should feel insulted that the pink haired girl didn't want to be on his team. Honestly it wasn't something that had happened to him in years. Being the Yondaime's son had pretty much erased any potential negativity that had been associated with his being a jinchuuriki.

"Sakura-chan?" Iruka-sensei questioned in a voice that was more than a little confused. The girl just stood there pointing to them, cheeks puffing like an angry toad and green eyes almost _angry_.

Okay, Naruto decided. He was _offended_. What the hell was wrong with this girl? He settled on a glare that was a poor imitation of his father's, but the best he could manage.

"What's your problem?" he snarled.

The girl spun on him with a hiss. Naruto barely resisted the urge to jump behind Sasuke. The girl looked startlingly like Tsunade-baa-chan when she was angry at Jiraiya. Behind him he felt Sasuke move to stare at the girl with him.

"I want to know why I'm with the _Dead Last_? I know I didn't score that bad on exams and you did horribly!" The girl yelled right back. Naruto was on his feet before he could stop himself. Sasuke was the only one who could get away with that.

"Shut up Ghost Girl!"

"Naruto! Sakura!" Iruka-sensei's voice cut sharply through the room ending the argument before it could fully begin.

Reluctantly the two teammates turned towards the Chunin.

"Now Sakura you shouldn't attack a teammate." Naruto snorted and threw the girl a grin that she returned with murder in her eyes.

"And you shouldn't make it worse Naruto." Iruka-sensei scolded and Naruto turned back to the man with a pout ignoring the smirk from the pink haired girl.

"But to answer your question, the point of these assignments is to create a _balanced_ team. Naruto may have flunked the written exams, but he still did exceptionally better than you in the taijutsu arts. He is in the bottom rung, Sasuke is the top of the class, and you Sakura-chan balance them out by being in the dead center."

The girl looked floored when Naruto looked back at her.

"I'm on their team because I'm _average_?" she breathed incredulous.

Iruka-sensei looked at her thoughtfully for a few minutes and nodded. "Yes that's the sum of it."

After that the pink haired girl sat down into her customary silence and Naruto also settled, but felt faintly unnerved by the quiet now. In a different way than before. If the girl could be so loud why was she so quiet? Naruto shook the thoughts off though. He didn't care what the girl's problems were. The girl, _Sakura_ , was a jerk.


	2. Chapter 2

2\. Sensei

Kakashi

Kakashi was not above admitting he needed a break, despite what his cute little kohai and his sensei may think. So when Minato suggested that he take a break from ANBU after almost thirteen years of service Kakashi had agreed. Team Ro would be fine without him. After all he'd been training Tenzo just for the eventuality of his being gone. Though when he started Kakashi assumed he'd only leave ANBU in a body bag. Fate, and Sensei, had a different opinion.

Adjusting back to the Regular Corps wasn't difficult, but it was very different. Kakashi was by no means shy, but he found himself more and more wanting to hide in the background. Interacting with his fellow shinobi, not to mention the civilians was overwhelming. Being in the open felt wrong and he couldn't rid himself of the instinctive need to watch from the shadows. As much as he hated to admit it Gai helped a lot in acclimatizing him back into the fold. His ridiculous challenges hadn't stopped just because of back-to-back missions in ANBU and it was a familiar comfort. It had still taken a year for Kakashi to start consistently going out in public. His biggest saving grace was Icha Icha. It allowed him to go out and get used to the presence of others without risk of someone approaching him. After all no one wanted to talk to the crazy Jounin reading porn in public.

Still even if he was adapting to the change he'd been reluctant to accept a Genin team when Minato had started to suggest it. The first two teams he tested didn't manage to pass his test, so he didn't have high hopes for the next group.

Kakashi should have known Minato was planning something.

This had to be revenge for not visiting since Naruto was still toddling around calling him "Kaka-nii".

It was like seeing a slightly distorted image of Team Minato at their very beginning. The loud brash child determined to be Hokage, his relatively normal best friend who looks after him, and the quiet distant one who did not want their teammates. The differences were glaring, instead of a cold prodigy it was a quiet pink haired kunoichi with more darkness in her eyes than a child born in peace should possess. The brash child was only half an orphan with a doting father to support him and his dream. And the normal one on the team was the second son of the Uchiha Clan Head.

It made his insides clench in the most painful ways.

It also made him more determined than ever to test their teamwork. Kakashi loved his team, but that dynamic hadn't worked. It had gotten Obito killed. It had gotten Rin taken. It had destroyed them. It didn't matter that this was Sensei's son, if Naruto and his team couldn't prove they could overcome it he wouldn't pass them.

From his hiding spot Kakashi observed them as the other teams slowly trailed out with their sensei. After the initial argument with Naruto, the girl seemed satisfied with separating herself from the two of them and looked deep in thought occasionally mouthing something, but never speaking out loud. It almost looked as if little Sakura was talking to herself. Naruto seemed content to ignore the girl and talk to Sasuke. Kakashi was sure the boy hadn't forgotten the girl by any means. The Uchiha appeared to be ignoring Naruto and seemed to become more and more agitated as time passed, giving the door increasingly hostile looks.

Kakashi supposed now was as good a time to meet his new Genin as any.

The first thing Kakashi noticed when he arrived in the hallway was that the door was slightly ajar. The eraser was a quick second. A very minor prank, specially for Naruto's standards. He could avoid it, but Kakashi felt an odd sort of warmness in his chest at the sight causing the twist of pain to loosen. It felt like nostalgia, but that wasn't quite right. There was nothing nostalgic about an eraser but somehow the sight of it made a sweet feeling go through him and made him feel oddly hopeful.

So on a whim Kakashi pushed the door open and walked right into it.

Naruto immediately started laughing. Sasuke looked disgruntled and unimpressed. Sakura looked at him with a suspicion rivaling his ANBU.

Kakashi came to a startling realization that he'd never had with the other teams.

He liked them.

. . .

It didn't get any better when they went to the roof for a little introduction. To put it quite frankly his brats were adorable. Though he should probably refrain from thinking of them as his until after they pass the test. No if they pass the test. Is this how Minato-sensei had felt when he first meet Team Minato? Did he realize Kakashi would feel like this?

Kakashi shook off the feeling and looked over his students more closely now that he had them in front of him.

Naruto may take after Minato in coloring, but that round face was definitely Kushina. The orange was eye catching but not nearly as bad as the old jumpsuit he used to wear was. Naruto had kept the orange pants, but his shirt was black with orange trimmings on the sleeves and up the middle. One both sides of the collar were uzushio swirls with a large one on the back Kakashi had spotted earlier. He was looking at him with eager blue eyes.

Sasuke was definitely less than impressed with his new sensei wearing an expression of utter disapproval that he must have picked up from Fugaku. The boy was dressed in all black the attire an imitation of the Konoha Police Force uniform. Kakashi could see the discrete uchiwa in a shuriken design on the shoulder of the long sleeves and a vest zipped up securely to the open collar was a close imitation to the flak jacket.

The girl was another matter entirely. Sakura seemed determined to hide. Her hair was long with bangs falling in her face, not a good thing for a shinobi. She wore a dark green vest over a plain long sleeve shirt and brown pants. The clothes were obviously civilian made also without the sturdy look of shinobi cloth. If not for the hitai-ate tied to her arm she would have looked more civilian than shinobi.

Despite the distinctly un-shinobi like attire, Sakura was the one who acted the least like a fresh faced Academy graduate. She watched him quietly and carefully behind her bangs, not drawing attention to herself seemingly to get a better feel for the situation. Even her chakra was muted, making her seem less like a threat to a superior foe.

Kakashi definitely liked them.

"Alright!" Kakashi said clapping and making the little Genin look at him expectantly. "We'll start with getting to know each other. I want each of you to tell me a little about yourself. Likes, dislikes, dreams and such."

Kakashi looked over the assembled group thoughtfully and pointed to Sasuke. "You first."

The Uchiha, predictably enough, did not look very happy.

"We already know each other Sensei," Kakashi didn't think he'd ever heard the word said with quite that much disapproval. "Shouldn't you introduce yourself first."

"*Oh...me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I'm the kind of person who doesn't feel like talking about his likes or dislikes! My dreams for the future are none of your business...But anyway, I have lots of hobbies."

Icha Icha, talking to the dead, being late…Kakashi listed as he watched the boy fume. Kakashi couldn't hold back a smile which was a surprise in and of itself. A bit perturbed he gestured for the boy to begin. He did with an annoyed grunt.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I enjoy my mother's food and training with my older brother. I dislike lateness. And I will be a member of the Police Force once I become a chunin. I don't really have any hobbies."

It continued like that quickly.

"My name is Namikaze Naruto! I like instant ramen, Tou-chan, Mikoto-oba-chan, Fugaku-oji-san, Itachi, and even Sasuke. When he's not being a bastard! I dislike the three minutes you have to wait for ramen! My dream is to become an even better Hokage than my Tou-chan! I guess my hobby would be pranks?"

"I am Haruno Sakura. I like puzzle games and I dislike bullies...I don't really have a dream. I suppose my hobby is reading."

Kakashi shouldn't have left feeling half as hopeful as he did, but there was something about the group of kids that made him feel lighter than he had in years. Maybe these three could be the ones Rin, Obito. As long as they got themselves together tomorrow.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_ There wasn't much action in this, but I wanted to use Kakashi to transfer from the sorting the the Bell Test. Plus it gave you guys a look at where he's at in his life right now. In canon Kakashi was only in ANBU ten years, but in this story he was in it longer due to the Uchiha Massacre not occurring.


End file.
